


danny.

by rainbowrabblerouser



Category: Re-Animator (Movies)
Genre: Couch Cuddles, Dan Cain is a Talking Heads stan, Domestic Fluff, Engagement, Falling In Love, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Herbert West Unironically Likes Weezer, Kissing, M/M, Sharing a Bed, Truth or Dare, dan takes him to mcdonalds like a good husband, projecting onto both of them, talking heads - stop making sense
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-30
Updated: 2020-03-30
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:07:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23394496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainbowrabblerouser/pseuds/rainbowrabblerouser
Summary: Herbert loves calling him by his special nickname.Dan wants to just seal the deal.
Relationships: Daniel Cain/Herbert West
Comments: 7
Kudos: 66





	danny.

Herbert was not infatuated. He knew that for sure. Maybe he was in love. 

As a scientist, he had to test the hypothesis. So when Dan’s hands linger a little too long on his and when he managed to get him close enough so that their lips were inches apart and Dan’s eyes pierced into his soul and he was all he thought about…

Herbert logged in the data and started doodling in his lab notebook like he was head over heels for the bubble headed coed. 

Who would take whose last name? Would they even be married? Is that more illegal than what they did in the lab? Why couldn’t he stop thinking about these issues when there were pressing matters?

Would he finally have a good enough reason to live forever?

“Danny…” Herbert would whisper as Dan lifted him into a bridal carry and tuck him into his bed– slowly turning into their bed– and hold him close. “Is it late?”

“Yes, Herbert. Too late to be working.”

Herbert saw only blips of Dan and their lava lamp. Purples and blues drowned out his vision as he lay his face in Dan’s neck, taking him in. 

“No. I mean too late for me?”

Dan chuckled as he wrapped his arms around him. “You’re not dying.”

“Well, it feels like it because of how fast I’ve fallen. I’m turning soft. I’m smitten, Danny. I don’t know if I like it.”

“Smitten? Turning soft? Herbert, you just killed a man in cold blood.”

Herbert was asleep in his arms by the time the sentence ended. 

Dan smiled as he turned the light off and held Herbert.

* * *

“Oh, Danny!” 

Herbert called out to him like they were an old-timey husband and wife who would do normal things like cook dinner and watch television rather than reanimate the dead and avoid talking about their latent homosexual feelings toward one another. 

“Herbert.” 

Dan’s tone was too curt for Herbert’s liking, but he still put his hands around his neck as Dan lifted him up and put him on the couch. 

Maybe they could be domestic, he thought as Herbert lay his head on his lap and he put Talking Heads’ “Stop Making Sense” on.

Dan thought about what he and Herbert would be like in 30 years. 

Probably the same. 

Herbert was basically his wife already. He just needed to pull a ring out and seal the deal. He had found Herbert’s scribbled journal entries with “Herbert Cain” and “Danny West” with hearts and stars; Herbert fell asleep on them. He thought it was the cutest thing he had ever seen. Besides Herbert himself.

There was no doubt he was in love with Herbert. He would never escape his mind. 

Herbert was there when he would go out and buy them groceries, reminding him to get that ice cream he liked. In the store, urging him to buy another tight shirt. In the front lawn, urging him to just go into the basement and just spit it out and then ravish him.

Herbert was pure temptation. He said what he bit his tongue to censor. He touched him where he wanted. He clicked with him in no way any woman ever did. 

“Danny, can we play a game?”

Herbert was mumbling tiredly as David Byrne danced around on screen like a mad man. They had watched this about 10 times. 

Dan ruffled Herbert’s hair. “Sure.”

“Truth or dare?”

He was feeling brave.

“Dare.”

Herbert chuckled, “I dare you to hold this.”

Then, Herbert reached out and held his hand. 

“I wouldn’t have guessed you’d be that smooth, Herbert.”

“Your turn,” is all he says as he squeezes his hand. 

“Dare.”

Dan could feel the tension as Herbert leaned in close to whisper in his ear. He leaned back to look at him. Herbert wasn’t aging fast. He still looked like that ridiculous man who showed up at his door and ruined his life. 

Dan didn’t regret it all that much; he thought about that when Herbert would fall asleep on his shoulder during their rewatches of “Stop Making Sense” after Herbert would mumble the lyrics of “Girlfriend Is Better” to him as if he was what the song was about. 

Herbert admitted that he liked Weezer a little more than Talking Heads because they were more his style – nerd rock. Talking Heads was just “crackhead alt” to him.

When Herbert said that his favorite album was “Speaking in Tongues” – out of nowhere – Dan went to the store and picked out a ring with a peridot and planned how he’d ask.

“Peridot? Is she a fickle one?” The clerk said.

Dan didn’t bother correcting. “Yes, very.”

He carried that ring in his pocket every single day in case.

As “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody)” played, Dan looked into Herbert’s eyes. 

“Kiss me.”

Herbert’s lips are soft as they collide like a dying star. They’re close to making out like a bunch of desperate teenagers in a beat-up car. But they were desperate middle-aged men on a beat-up couch.

Herbert cups his face like he’s done this before. Dan leans into the touch and hopes Herbert gives him a little more later on.

“Oh, take me to dinner first, Daniel.”

Before he can protest, Herbert pushes him down and kisses him deeply. 

“McDonald’s isn’t dinner, Danny.”

Dan lets himself get dominated and pushed around by Herbert.

Maybe he’d be Mr. Daniel West after all.

* * *

One day, Dan drops his pencil and gets down to pick it up. 

“Again, Danny?”

He looks up and pulls out the ring.

“Herbert,” Dan says like it’s a secret. 

Herbert gasps a “Dan,” like when he told him he was going to move out all those years ago. He looks down at Dan with pleading eyes.

He puts the ring on and then lifts Dan up onto the counter as they kiss. It gets heated soon and Dan mutters, “Fuck.”

“What about dinner?”

Dan laughs, “That can wait.”

Herbert kisses his neck and he moans his name. 

“Danny…”

* * *

**Conclusion:** He is in love.

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I listened to "EARFQUAKE" by Tyler the Creator a lot and made this.  
> Conclusion: gay.
> 
> best cover: 
> 
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrQakExHmYk
> 
> tumblr: @rainbowrabblerouser
> 
> I take requests!


End file.
